Thanks for the link to Stackpole's deconstruction of Doctorow's "experiment." Mike's a skeptic from way back, and this analysis is typical of his very clear-headed approach to most experiments. I respect Cory's success as a self-promoter, but I agree with Mike that his methods in this case are both suspect and sourced from a warped perspective vis a vis his own position versus that of beginning or less self-promotion-oriented writers. Gonna be interesting to see where things go from here.

ETA: In Stackpole's follow-up about what Cory's doing right, he makes a good point in a marvelous way that I must remember for future debates, to wit:

Cory is one of the poster-children for the “information wants to be free” movement; though as my partner Kat Klaybourne and author Raymond Feist are fond of replying to that statement, “Yes, but entertainment wants to be paid.” For some reason folks think it’s okay to say to a creator of intellectual property that the product of our labors should be free; yet they never convincingly press that argument at a farmer’s market. This is perhaps because more farmers carry shotguns than do writers.

Edited at 2009-10-28 02:00 pm (UTC)